The Abstract Image Two related strands of poetic diction have been handed down to contemporary American poetry from a tradition which we might label roughly “surrealist.” The first of these strands, predominantly Spanish in origin and one which we might label “archetypal,” has been brilliantly analyzed and criticized by Paul Breslin in his essay “Nihilistic … More Spanish influence in American poetry
Although the term “conversation” includes many types of discourse, and the “conversation” poem appears in such diverse guises as the “poem of instruction” invented by Gary Snyder in his “Things To Do” poems, and in “letter” poems best exemplified by Richard Hugo’s letter poems in 31 Letters and 13 Dreams, we may distinguish two basic … More Holden 3
Here we have a good poet. Long for Stanley Plumly It’s about to be too late. Every shred of the usual weather is precious and sexual as it goes, the way the links of a fugue become one another’s strict abandonments. As for the future, it will not swerve. Fire sleeps in the tree. Which … More William Matthews
In the conversation poem, the problem of establishing the authority of the speaking voice is even more acute than in confessional. The speaker cannot lay claim to the ethical or moral authority of the confessional voice by virtue of testimony alone. Nor is the conversation poem a dramatic monologue. The reader must be willing to … More Holden 2
So much depends upon the chicken or rooster, that is to say when you have a Death Row visit to Angola on a winter day, the first of a thaw and you are riding on the Angola bus with a young man who has ridden from Dallas to see his father whom he only knows … More Poem written in under five minutes, unrevised and not workshopped
I am disappointed that she is promoting poetry of poor caliber. El que diga yo esto means that I am more loyal to poetry than I am to alleged poetic leaders in what has also become my Raza. Que así sea. Axé.
Is it possible that there are different levels of poetry? Poetry that is like commercial pop music, and good in this genre, but that you should not compare to good music? Should we call poetry that aims for a support group level of discourse, poetry? Holden says that in confessional and conversation poetry, the life … More In Radical Pursuit
Style and Authenticity in Postmodern Poetry (Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1986) Jonathan Holden CHAPTER 2 (pp. 33-44) The Contemporary Conversation Poem The most personal type of contemporary poem—personal because in this type of poem we find the poet speaking in his or her own person directly to the reader—is the poem which appropriates, as … More Holden 1
Do not make verses about happenings. For poetry, there is no creation or death. In her eyes, life is an unmoving sun, Which neither warms nor lights. The attractions, the anniversaries, the personal incidents do not matter. Do not make poetry with the body. This excellent, complete and comfortable body, so unfit for lyrical flow. … More Drummond: “Procura da poesia”
Writin’ La Vida Loca: Laundry, Poetry, Love Ella qué será She’s livin’ la vida loca Y te dolerá Sí, de verdad te toca –Ricky Martin No one should try to climb this Mexican electric fence –Treviño The title of Natalia Treviño’s collection Lavando la Dirty Laundry (Norman, OK: Mongrel Empire Press, 2013) is most surely … More Only one section to go, and I am learning from doing this, and/but is it too negative?
coldhearted scientist وداد 